Search an address, choose how much of the neighbourhood you need, and get the site around it: buildings with heights, roads at their real width, trees, water, land use and terrain. Use it as a 3D context model, or as a 2D plan drawn in one of fourteen plan styles (figure-ground, Nolli, movement, building heights and more), laid out on a sheet at scale.
Site Context Generator
Runs in the browser — nothing to install.
| Source | Open map data (OpenStreetMap, Overture Maps) and open elevation |
| Output | .3dm · DXF · PDF · SVG · OBJ · STL · Collada · glTF · GeoJSON · Revit |
| Modes | 3D model · 2D plan |
How it works
The ArchiTool site engine assembles the open map data for the area you choose; the model, the drawing and every exported file are then made in your browser.
- Buildings, water and green come from Overture Maps (OpenStreetMap plus other open footprints); roads and trees from OpenStreetMap.
- Each building height is recorded, measured or estimated — the Legend says which, and Highlight estimated heights shows the guessed ones.
- Roads are given their real width from their tags and lane counts, not drawn as centrelines.
- Terrain is bare-earth elevation where your plan includes it, with open elevation tiles as the fallback; the result summary names the source.
- A site survey you add is read on your computer and never uploaded.
- Exported files carry the data credit (© OpenStreetMap contributors, Overture Maps Foundation; ODbL) — keep it if you pass the file on.
Using it
Find your site
Search an address or place, paste coordinates as "lat, lon", or pick a sample site from the search box. Drag the pin, or use Set centre and click the middle of your site.
Size the area
Set the Area radius — up to 2 km for a 3D model, 4 km for a 2D plan. Or use Draw area to drag a box, or Use view to take the area you can see on the map.
Mark your site
Optional: use Draw site to outline your plot, so it is drawn as the site in the model and the plan. Or turn on City borders, click a border, and choose Use … as the site.
Choose the layers
Tick what you need: Buildings, Roads (with a Merged road outline option), Terrain, Land use, Water, Trees, Site details and City & district borders. Trees include mapped trees and trees found from satellite canopy height.
Add your survey
Optional: drop a DWG site survey on the "Have a site survey?" card. It can supply the ground, the kerbs and the plot. A survey drawn in recognised map coordinates is placed for you; otherwise click matching points to place it.
Generate the preview
Click Generate Preview — previews are free. Switch between 3D model and 2D plan, read the Legend, and turn on Highlight estimated heights to see which buildings are guessed.
Pick a look
In 3D, colour buildings by use or height and cast shadows. In 2D, choose a preset — Context plan, Figure-ground, Nolli, Inverse figure-ground, Land use, Green & blue, Movement, Building heights, Blueprint, Ink, Pen, Monograph, Rendered masterplan or Poster — and set the sun for styles that draw shadows (Convention, Real sun or Set angle). Customise changes colours and line weights; Save to my styles keeps the result.
Set the sheet
In 2D, the sheet bar sets the Scale, Paper size and Orientation, and Lines follow scale keeps line weights true at that scale. Move plan slides the drawing on the sheet. The sheet is remembered for each site.
Export
Open Export and pick a format: Rhino .3dm in both modes; PDF sheet, SVG for Illustrator and DXF in 2D; DXF, Collada, OBJ and STL in 3D; GeoJSON and glTF in both. Choose the export coordinates (Auto, Local metres or UTM) and add contour curves at any interval. Send to Revit sends the site to the Revit add-in (ArchiTool.ai tab → Import site).
Plans and credits
- Previews are free; you need to sign in to export.
- Without Pro, a download uses credits by area — your free monthly credits first. The cost shows under Area radius and on the Export button before you download, and one download covers every format of that site. Pro downloads don't use credits.
- The PDF sheet with a title block, and the full SVG sheet, come with an Education licence or Pro.
- Saving styles to My styles comes with Education (shared with your class) or Pro (private or shared).
- Files are for non-commercial use and say so inside; commercial work needs Pro.
What to trust it for
- Getting a site model into Rhino in minutes instead of an afternoon of tracing.
- Context massing for shadow, wind, view and daylight studies.
- Figure-ground, Nolli and movement diagrams in a consistent style, at a real scale.
- Competition and feasibility work on sites you cannot visit.
What not to use it for
- Survey-grade context, boundary lines or anything dimensional you will build to.
- Planning submissions without a measured survey behind them.
- Confirming that something is not there — an empty area usually means unmapped.
Known limits
- Map coverage is volunteer-made and uneven: excellent in some cities, sparse a few streets away, and occasionally years out of date.
- Many buildings have no recorded height; those are estimated from nearby buildings or set to a default. Measured heights from LiDAR are available in England only.
- Roof shapes appear only where they are recorded; other buildings are flat-topped, and balconies and projections are not modelled.
- Terrain is open elevation data at tile resolution, which smooths the real ground and can float or bury buildings on steep sites.
- Canopy-height trees come from 1 m satellite data — good for where trees are, rougher on their exact size.
- Public map servers are rate-limited; a sparse result can be a truncated query rather than an empty site, so regenerate before believing it.
Tips
- Do — Start with a small radius — large sites take longer to build and are heavier to work with in Rhino.
- Do — Use the Nolli or Figure-ground preset for urban diagrams instead of redrawing the plan by hand.
- Do — Turn on Highlight estimated heights before you rely on a neighbour's height in a shadow or view study.
- Avoid — Handing a non-Pro file to a paying client — it is marked non-commercial inside; commercial work needs Pro.
Site Context Generator
Runs in the browser — nothing to install.